At Western Massachusetts gas stations, snowstorm leaves long lines, short tempers

SPRINGFIELD – Two days after losing power from a freak October snowstorm, Western Massachusetts residents struggled to keep their patience – and tempers – as long lines formed at gas stations opened for business.

“No power. No gas. No nothing,” said Adam Meunier, 39, of Springfield, as his Silverado pick-up inched forward in a block-long line leading to gas pumps at the Peter Pan Bus Station on Main Street

Meunier’s comment summed up the plight of motorists swarming gasoline stations Monday, 48 hours after a Nor’easter cut off power to 500,000 homes and business statewide, including gas stations that need electricity to run pumps.

In a year of almost cartoonishly bad weather, the weekend storm accomplished something that a hurricane, tornadoes and an assortment of floods, snowstorms and an earthquake could not: paralyze the entire region, wreaking havoc in every community, on almost every street.

By late morning, the scenes at local gas stations were reminiscent of the long, panicked lines from the 1970s Arab oil embargo, when the quest for gasoline became a national obsession.

To keep order, police were deployed at particularly busy gas stations, including Breckwood and Wilbraham roads, St. James Ave. and Tapley St., and Bay St. & Berkshire Ave.

Not long after the BP station on Main Street in Springfield received its daily gasoline shipment at 5:40 a.m., customers began rolling in and lines began stretching into the street.

“It was crazy,” the clerk, who gave his name as Arfan, recalled.

“They were coming from Connecticut just to get gas.”

By 11 a.m., the gas was gone; when a second delivery arrived at 4 p.m, the onslaught began again.

Police in Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke reported numerous traffic tie-ups as motorists waited in long lines for gasoline.

Traffic jams are also common around Dunkin Donuts shops, and minor road rage incidents have been reported in gasoline lines, Springfield Sgt. John Delaney said.

“You can tell people are getting frustrated because people are running out of gas while they are in line,” he said.

“That’s pretty much our major problem,” added Chicopee Police Capt. Steven Muise, adding that grocery stores and convenience stores are also generating traffic tie-ups. Back at the Peter Pan station, Meunier was considering a long-term solution to his problem.

“I’m moving to Florida - I’ve had it,” said Meunier, a housing contractor whose own home has been without power since 5:30 p.m. Saturday; the storm brought repair and brush-clearing jobs, but Meunier needs gasoline to get to job sites, and to run generators once he gets there.

As his jeep approached the gasoline pumps, Meunier let a harried-looking motorist cut through the line – a courtesy other motorists seemed unwilling to extend.

“She said she needed to park” and pick up a bus passenger, Meunier said.

It was his second trip to the gas station since Sunday - the first one was to fill up his truck, the second for gasoline to take to his mother’s home in Easthampton for her generator.

Considering the mileage being put on his decade-old truck, Meunier could be back in another line, at another gas station very soon.